The occasion, time (5th October 1910) and location (Euston) are all known. The
engine is an unidentified Precursor. The question is did the LNWR often run
trains where the engine was so highly decorated?

This tickled my fancy and lead to (for me) an interesting little diversion…The name Mazawattee was invented by John Boon Densham in 1887, it combined two Far Eastern words for ‘luscious garden’ (Oxford DNB)On the 7thMay 1904 The Herald reported a record tax cheque written by Mazawattee Tea Company, Ltd., representing 5,151,746 lbs of tea (The Herald)And New Cross are still proud of the Mazawattee buildings (Lewisham Council)

Alan Budge — 09-Oct-2006 10.03 PM

The answer to your question has to be no. All the flags and plaques are much too clean. There are no tears or flies. Even in 1910 good old common sense would prevail and not allow it. What would today’s HSE think? This is definitely a staged photograph.

Howard Williams — 04-Nov-2008 4.45 PM

I don't know how often they decorated their engines but the Euston occasion wasn't unprecedented. The inaugural train on the "missing link" between Brynmawr and Nantyglo featured a beautifully clean and highly decorated coal tank (no. 2458) running bunker first from Brynmawr.

See Tasker, Merthyr, Tredegar & Abergavenny and Branches page 35.

Megan Young — 04-Jan-2018 1.41 PM

I believe this may be a train sitting at Paddington which had been chartered by John Lane Densham chairman of the Mazawattee Tea Co.
It was chartered for a visit of French delegates of the Federation of Grocers Association to an Anglo French Conference.
Following visits to the Company premises at New Cross and lunch they were conveyed to Paddington where they then travelled by this special train to Windsor and following a visit to the Castle and having tea they travelled back to Paddington.
This visit occurred on 21/5/1908 and is reported in The Taunton Courier on 27/5/1908 and The Western Gazette on29/5/1908. Hope this helps

Harry Jack — 08-Jan-2018 4.31 PM

Sorry, Megan, but this train isn’t the one you found described in ‘The Taunton Courier’ and ‘The Western Gazette’, because the visible details of the station show that the location is definitely Euston. The train is standing at Arrival Platform No 1, looking north with the buffer stops not far to the left behind the camera.
The Special Train headboard on the front of the engine has a date which reads “October 5th 1910” and I suppose that the train has recently arrived from Birmingham; the flags etc were then added and the group photo taken.
“MAZAWATTEE SPECIAL” (top right) seems to have been added in the photographer’s studio on the hanging “No 1 PLATFORM” board.